Are you hoping for more ethnic music in Lisbon? Since the sublime Salvador won last year, with a non-Schlager song, that was – heaven forbid – not in English, I’ve been hoping that more countries will be dusting off their own native tongues, to give us a contest like those before the free-language rule. They were perhaps more interesting and gave countries a sense of pride.
That’s why I’ve picked today’s random song. In 2004 when the march of English was already apparent, a certain small (but perfectly formed) Baltic nation didn’t just use their main national language. Oh no, they used a minority one with about 87,000 speakers. That language is Võro and the Baltic nation is, of course, Estonia. This song sadly past the people of Europe by – the heathens – but we still love them.